


Conviction

by idontevenknowugh



Series: Control [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, CreepBerry, Depression, Discussion of Rape, M/M, Manipulation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape Recovery, discussion of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-10-02 06:23:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17259185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idontevenknowugh/pseuds/idontevenknowugh
Summary: Sequel to Disbelief.Blue's upset, feeling betrayed, and... missing. But how much more harm can he really cause?





	1. Reliance

**Author's Note:**

> Ooooops. >_>
> 
> This WIP was funded by the darling Lyco ([AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfbunny/pseuds/wolfbunny)|[Twitter](https://twitter.com/lycovore)|PiFo)! <3 Thank you so very much, sweetie!

Edge hadn't been sure he would ever see Stretch again, let alone that same day. Wordlessly, he stepped back and let him into the house. He hadn't even had time to decide what he was going to do without his double.   
  
“Did he kick you right back out?” he asked, closing the door after Stretch stalked inside.   
  
“No, he did not,” Stretch replied tersely. Edge glanced over at Red, who he had coaxed down to the couch and given some lasagna. Red still hadn’t actually spoken to him. Right now, he was watching Stretch warily, his plate balanced preciously on the arm of the couch. Edge felt the urge to snap at him that he was going to spill it and make a mess, an urge he ignored with, he felt, aplomb.  
  
“He couldn’t kick me out, because he wasn’t there!” Stretch only barely didn’t yell. He didn’t stop walking once he was inside, continuing to pace without looking at either of them. Edge also held back a comment about how distressing it must be to lose your brother.   
  
He was already getting good at this self-restraint thing.   
  
“So he went off to sulk, so what?” Edge scoffed. He had no trouble seeing Blue like a child who’d had his toy taken away. He certainly acted like a child. Still, it was unnerving to not know where such a vicious monster wars. They had all learned of other worlds and the machines needed to travel between them. Blue could show up here as easily as Stretch had.   
  
“Stars, I wonder when he’ll go back,” Stretch muttered, not bothering to deny his brother’s childish behavior. “Waiting in that house…”  
  
“A waste of time,” Edge waved his hand as if he could banish the idea entirely. It was, especially when Stretch could be here, helping him figure out what the fuck to do. “He'll go back and when he does he'll stay. You just need to check in occasionally.”   
  
Stretch made a noncommittal grunt and kept pacing anxiously. Edge waited for him to stop, but got impatient before he did. Leaving him to his little freakout, Edge walked over to Red. It wasn't that Edge didn't care what happened to Blue. He cared very, very much. He just happened to think that finding a pile of dust with his stupid bandana would be one of the better options, if not quite as satisfying some the others.   
  
“Stretch is back,” Edge said to Red with a smile. Red had been watching the proceedings, of course, but Edge hoped he would say something in response to this new development. How did he feel about Blue’s unknown whereabouts?   
  
Whatever he thought, he was keeping his peace. His eyelights searched Edge’s face for a moment before they flickered over to the _still muttering_ Stretch. Edge had a sudden feeling like he had forgotten something important.   
  
“If you don't want him to stay, he won't,” he told Red, ashamed that it took him so long to ask Red’s opinion of the matter. He clearly wasn't going to speak up for himself. It hadn't exactly gone so well for him before, especially with Edge. Still, Edge wanted his brother to trust him, not that he had earned it.   
  
Red’s eyelights snapped back to him, staring intensely into his sockets like he was trying to gauge if Papyrus was serious.  
  
“I mean it. I’ll figure it out,” Edge insisted. He didn't think Stretch would try to stay, since he hadn't wanted to before.  
  
Red shrugged minutely, looking down at his lap. Edge took that as permission for Stretch to stay and hoped he was doing the right thing.   
———  
“Lasagna.”   
  
“Yes.”  
  
“For breakfast?”  
  
“If you can eat shitty tacos three times a day, you can eat my gourmet lasagna.”   
  
“Don't call them shitty.”   
  
“Humph.” Edge tilted his skull up and turned back to the pan of pasta, cheese, and sauce. He slipped a third piece onto a plate, even though Red had yet to make an appearance.  
  
“What are you going to do now?” He asked once the plate was on the table and there was nothing for him to do but wait.   
  
“Drink myself into oblivion?”   
  
Edge stared at him.   
  
“Hibernate until the snow melts?”   
  
Edge sighed.   
  
“Take up competitive napping?”   
  
“Do you have any interest in actually helping my brother?” Edge growled, leaning on the table.   
  
“It doesn't matter,” Stretch responded loftily, “because interest doesn't equal ability. As much as I would love to help, I can't. I'm only here because I have nowhere else to go.”   
  
“You could go home, if you're going to be useless.”   
  
“You begged me to stay!” Stretch gave him an irritated look.  
  
“When I thought I could get you to at least try and help. Clearly I underestimated your uselessness.”   
  
“Stop calling me useless.”   
  
“Stop being useless.”   
  
“Um…”  
  
Their skulls moved in tandem, swiveling to look at the doorway into the kitchen. Red stood there, shoulders hunched and eyelights anxiously darting between them. Edge smiled at him. He couldn't help himself. Red had spoken! Well, he made a sound, at least.   
  
“Sans,” Edge greeted him. “Breakfast?” He gestured at the plate of lasagna. Red looked down at it and nodded slightly. With a timid shuffle, he made his way to the table and sat down. Edge watched anxiously as he took a small bite.  
  
Stretch stood nearby, not moving to take his own food. There was a sense like held breaths in the room, as they waited. Red kept taking small, almost nibbling, bites of the food. He didn’t seem inclined to speak any further.  
  
When he couldn’t take it any longer, Edge turned back to the counter and started to put the rest of the lasagna away. Once his face was hidden, he allowed himself a brief frustrated grimace. Why wouldn’t Sans at least talk to him? He’d even be happy hearing about the small things, since he knew he had lost his brother’s trust when it came to talking about anything important.  
  
“Red…” Stretch said suddenly. Edge jumped, having accepted the silence. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at his brother, who was staring at Stretch with a nervous expression.  
  
“I just… I’m sorry…” Stretch said hesitantly. Papyrus scowled and rolled his eyelights. If he was going to bother apologizing, he could at least do it with conviction. What did that kind of weak apology even mean?   
  
“I hurt…” Red was staring at Stretch. His fork had stalled out above his plate as he listened. “I raped you,” Stretch seemed to collapse under that stare.   
  
Edge had a feeling that Red hadn't necessarily wanted to hear that. His eyelights were shrunken and shaky. Edge hadn't, either. Anything that brought back to mind what had happened- what he had let happen- was unwelcome.   
  
“I let Blue do… do… unthinkable things to you. I don't deserve anything from you, but I am sorry.” Stretch blurted out. Red’s eyelights disappeared, and he looked down at his food. His fork wavered for a moment. Finally, he just put it down.   
  
“Sans…” Edge reached out to him, but Red slipped out of his chair and walked out of the kitchen.   
  
“Now look what you've done,” Edge hissed. Sans had almost spoken, and Stretch had gone and thrown him back into the past.   
  
“You told me to try,” Stretch whispered, sinking down into a chair shakily. “I tried.”   
———  
“Sorry to come over so suddenly,” Blue smiled sadly. Papyrus shook his skull and sat down on the couch next to him.   
  
“It is always nice to see you,” he grinned at his friend. “And it has been a while.”   
  
“Y-Yeah, I know,” Blue had a much more somber tone than Papyrus remembered. He wondered if something had happened.   
  
“Is everything alright?” Papyrus had to help him, if it wasn't. Blue was also a great hero, but everyone needed help sometimes. In which cases, heroes needed to stick together.   
  
“Yeah,” Blue sounded strained, but he smiled at Papyrus. “Everything is just… fine.” Blue looked to the side with a frown that Papyrus couldn't miss. Frowning himself, Papyrus scooted a little closer to him.   
  
“I just needed a little time out of the house…” Blue said to the arm of the couch, but he was looking at Papyrus from the very sides of his sockets. “Hopefully it won’t be any trouble…”   
  
“It's no trouble at all!” Papyrus rushed to assure him. “You can stay as long as you want.” It would be fun to have Blue around, to talk about how his guard training was going and show off a few puzzles. They could even have a sleepover, if Blue wanted. This was going to be so much fun!   
  
“Thank you, Papyrus,” Blue said, his voice suspiciously watery. Papyrus's excitement petered out as he spoke. “It's just that Red might…”   
  
“Red might what?” Papyrus knew the two of them had been dating. Sans had said something about Red even moving in with them. Papyrus thought it was a good idea. Red and Edge’s world was a little too dark and intense for Papyrus's tastes. They would probably both benefit from some time in a kinder world.   
  
“Is he okay?”  
  
“Oh,” Blue laughed humorlessly. “He's fine- well, if I don't- But I’ve already left, so I’m sure he’s kind of… upset.” He hunched over a little, like he was scared, but Blue didn't get scared. Papyrus knew because he didn't get scared. Especially not of any of his brother’s counterparts.   
  
“Why would Red be upset?”  
  
“I… I wouldn't want to cause you any trouble….”  
———  
“Wait, wait wait,” Stretch slid into the doorway, blocking Edge from grabbing the door knob. He braved his arms to either side of the frame and stared Edge in the sockets.   
  
“You aren't leaving, _are you_?”  
  
“I have work,” Edge replied. “Which I certainly can't afford to miss now that Sans is home. Not to mention you.”  
  
“You have a job?” Stretch appeared to be blind sided by the news, his slightly panicked expression easing into confusion.   
  
“Of course!” Edge glared at him. “I took on Sans’s job to keep the house, after…”   
  
They both looked away, silent, at the reminder of what they had let happen. Stretch recovered first.   
  
“Can't you take some sick time? Or something?”  
  
“First of all, why? Second of all, no,” Edge replied flatly. He had burned through all of his sick and vacation time already while he got Red settled. He had wondered, if he explained to Undyne what had happened- no, no he couldn't do that. He couldn't admit his cowardice to her. That would be the death of his dreams.   
  
“Why?” Stretch gaped at him, incredulous. “Why are you not the least bit worried about leaving me here with Red? Any sane person would be. Not that a sane person would let me even stay under the same roof-”   
  
“Are you calling me insane?” Papyrus growled. “Or asking to be kicked out?”  
  
Stretch grimaced and flushed. They both knew he didn't really have anywhere else to go, unless he wanted to go wait in an empty house for his disgusting brother.   
  
“I just don't think leaving Red with one of his rapists is the best idea,”  
  
Papyrus frowned and crossed his arms. It wasn't like the thought hadn't occurred to him. Stretch was only proving him right by being so worried about Red.   
  
“Are you planning on raping him?”   
  
“No!” Stretch outright recoiled away from him.   
  
“Hurting him?”   
  
“No!”   
  
“Take him back to Blue?”   
  
“Of course not!”   
  
“Then what am I supposed to be worried about?” Edge asked. Stretch slumped and sighed.  
  
“Do you really trust me?”   
  
“Since you seem smart enough not to trust yourself, yes,” Edge shooed Stretch out of the way, and he went. “You said you’re trying. Now is your chance to prove it.”  
  
“What am I supposed to do if he needs something?”   
  
“Goddamn it, stop being so pathetic. Then you help him with it.” Edge was already late to be early.   
  
“What if it’s… emotional?” Stretch apparently refused to be anything less than wretched. “What if he's sad.”   
  
“He’s always sad, I think,” Edge replied softly and glanced over his shoulder. “But you know what he went through. Blue took advantage of you, too.”  
  
“I do _not_ know what he went through,” Stretch was emphatic about that, at least.   
  
“You're the best we have,” Edge said grimly.  
———-  
“Have you told Stretch?” Sans asked, his fists clenched in his jacket pockets. “Red talks a tough game, but I don't think he’d fight back against Stretch.”  
  
Blue’s face twisted for a moment, and then he broke down crying. Sans got a bad feeling. He didn't think Stretch would lose to Red, but…  
  
“P-Papy…” Blue sniffled. “Papy doesn't care about me,” he cried, and there was venom in his voice. Sans took a step back, and even Papyrus leaned away. They exchanged a look. It was impossible to believe Stretch could be anything but devoted to his brother. Sans happened to know that he loved Blue several different ways.   
  
“That’s not true, if he knew-” Papyrus started to say, his hand outstretched to comfort Blue.   
  
“He does!” Blue lifted his face, revealing fat tears. “Papy knows everything, and he sided with Red.”  
  
“No!” Papyrus gasped. Sans felt a little dizzy.   
  
“Red turned him against me,” Blue insisted. “C-corrupted him…” he began to sob into his hands again. Sans unclenched his fists and then tightened them again. He wanted to go find Red and give him a piece of his mind.   
  
“I knew that Red was troubled,” Blue kept talking into his hands. “I th- thought he could- I could help him.” Which sounded exactly like something Blue would do. And exactly the kind of thing Red would take advantage of.   
  
“I would always forgive him… I thought he was trying.” Blue sniffled and peeked up at them.   
  
“But I n-never thought that Papy…”   
  
“What did he do?” Sans asked, horrified by everything he was hearing. Stretch had been his friend, a confidant who knew what it was like.  
  
“Oh!” Blue looked away, ashamed. “It's not…”   
  
How could he have hurt Blue like this?   
  
“It's not-?”  
  
“Sans,” Papyrus interjected, “while I share your desire to get to the bottom of this, Blue should rest.”  
  
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” Sans backed down, walking away from where Blue was crying on the couch. It wasn't like him at all. There was just something about Stretch, who was him, essentially, leaving Blue like this. It was a betrayal of _who they were._   
  
Red was always a little different, a little more prone to dark humor, but even so, Sans had felt a certain amount of kinship with him, as well. To have preyed on Blue like that…   
  
Sans thought back to one of their last group gatherings, when Red had suddenly yelled at Blue. It had just seemed like a little squabble taken too far. Sans should have payed more attention. It had been a sign of well hidden abuse.  
  
Disgruntled, Sans walked upstairs while Papyrus made up the couch into a kind of bed. It hadn't occurred to Sans that he needed to protect Blue, because that was Stretch's job. It should have been impossible that he would harm Blue instead, and yet, if Sans was reading correctly into what Blue wasn't saying, then he had. He’d followed Red’s lead.   
  
It was clear that Blue had been through a lot. They hadn't seen much of him lately, of any of them. Now it made sense, because Red and Stretch had to know that if Sans caught on to their behavior there would be trouble. There probably still would be. It wouldn't be too hard to figure out where Blue had fled to.   
  
“Sans,” Papyrus called to him, and Sans was startled out of his thoughts to the realization he was just standing holding his door knob. He let it go and faced his brother. Papyrus looked grim, which wasn't typical for him, at all.   
  
“I told Blue he could stay here as long as he needed to.”   
  
“Yeah, of course,” Sans pushed a smile into his face. They could take care of Blue and if either of those two came for him, well, then there would be trouble.


	2. Resigned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans, I'm…I’m sorry. I only meant to—I’m sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to answer all the asks you all had for these characters before posting but I just cannot keep up with you, haha. So I'll have to answer the rest later. 
> 
> Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy. ^_^

“I should go,” Blue suddenly blurted as they were eating breakfast. The morning had been muted, all of them lost in their own thoughts. Sans mentally wiped the cobwebs from his skull and focused on their guest.   
  
Blue looked determined, but scared. His food was untouched, for all he had his fork gripped tightly in one fist. He was staring down at the table, and Sans couldn't catch his sockets.   
  
“You’re welcome to stay,” Papyrus said kindly. “We could do some extra training together, and if Red asks—”   
  
“That sounds…” Blue smiled suddenly, though still not as broadly as Sans was used to seeing. It dropped away as quickly as it had appeared. “I can't let anything happen to you two because you helped me.”  
  
Sans put his hands under the table as they reflexively clenched into fists. He was still furious. It wasn't often he even got mad, and it was exhausting. Not to mention, he hadn't really slept well, another aberration. All of it, plus Blue’s fearful expression, made him irritated.   
  
“Nothing will,” he snapped, drawing startled looks from both of them. “Not to us, and not to you. We can't let you go back to that. And if they come here, I’ll have some…words with them.”   
  
Stunned silence filled the kitchen. Papyrus was staring at Sans like he had grown an extra skull. Blue’s disbelieving gaze was wet with tears. Papyrus glanced over at him, doing a quick double take before standing, sending his chair clattering across the floor.   
  
“Of course! You should stay here, Blue. We’ll keep you safe and talk things out with Red and Stretch.”   
  
“They're…so mean,” Blue whimpered. “You shouldn't have to…”   
  
“No, you shouldn't have to. They're the elder brothers. I’ll set them straight,” Sans said harshly. He didn't want to have to take them to task, but he would. Hopefully it wouldn't turn violent, because it would be two against one. Even now, Sans couldn't really believe that they would attack him. Whatever they had been doing got out of hand, and when Sans confronted them, they would realize it. He was sure of it.   
  
“Th—Thank you,” Blue sniffled, reaching over the table to grab Sans’s sleeve. Blue’s skull was tilted so far down that his face was hidden, but Sans could see the the tears as they fell to the table. Papyrus quietly began to clean up their places while Sans pat Blue’s hand, letting him pretend that they didn't know he was crying.   
——  
“Where’s San—Red?” Edge asked looking around the room. Stretch glanced at him guiltily from his spot on the couch. Somehow, he slumped even further. He wasn't even sitting on it anymore, just resting his back on it while his legs held the rest of him up.   
  
“Upstairs,” Stretch replied. “He took off crying suddenly.”  
  
“And you just left him alone?” Edge growled, quickly storming into the kitchen to put away the groceries. He didn't get a reply immediately. Stretch followed him into the kitchen after a minute.   
  
“He was probably crying because of me,” Stretch said as he found room in the fridge for the cheese and meat.   
  
“What did you do?”   
  
Stretch shot him a look that indicated what he thought of Edge’s intelligence.   
  
“Recently?” Edge clarified with a frustrated sigh.   
  
“Nothing,” Stretch didn't even bother getting offended. He just looked tired. “Nothing bad. Nothing good. Every time I think about trying to do something I imagine all the ways it might cause more harm than help, so I just don't do it.”   
  
“That kind of indecision is why you're useless,” Edge sneered, even though he understood perfectly. It wouldn't do to encourage that way of thinking in Stretch, or himself. Inaction most definitely wouldn't help Red.   
  
Stretch groaned at him over the door of the fridge before shoving the ingredients in and slamming it shut. Edge ignored his dramatics, focusing instead on fixing a cup of tea. If Red was upset, maybe it would help.   
  
“I have the day off tomorrow,” he said, weighting the words with all the meaning he could manage. When he failed to get a reply, he turned to Stretch. The tea needed time to seep anyways.  
  
“You could go check.”  
  
“Yeah…” Stretch answered sullenly. He was leaning against the fridge, his arms crossed.  
  
“I thought you were _desperate_ to find the little—Blue.”  
  
Stretch nodded, but if anything he looked more wounded at that. Edge impatiently counted the seconds until Stretch rubbed his face and sighed.  
  
“What do I do if he’s not there?”   
  
“Come back. Besides, he might be. You won't know unless you check.”   
  
“What do I do if he's there?” Stretch gave Edge a lost look. That was a much better, and much more difficult, question to answer.   
  
“What will you do, if he is?” Stretch added. Edge checked the tea in order to hide a silent snarl.   
  
“Will you even tell me, if he is?” Edge asked, glancing over his shoulder. Stretch tilted his skull in acknowledgement. Edge removed the teabag and gave the cup a stir with a cinnamon stick, leaving it in after to give it some extra spice.   
  
“This ‘should I, shouldn't I’ shit is bullshit,” Edge stated, well aware that he was the biggest hypocrite in the world—fuck, the worlds. He picked up the mug and walked past the miserable Stretch. Even so, he wasn't wrong. Edge kept his spine straight as he walked up the stairs. The front door opened and closed as he raised his hand to knock on Red’s door.   
  
Red answered almost immediately after he knocked, though the door stopped with a dull thump after only a few inches. Edge caught a glance at a wide red eyelight before his brother ducked down behind the door. Some shuffling noises were followed by the door swinging open the rest of the way. Red backed away, making room for Edge to enter. The whole production almost made Edge regret coming up.   
  
“I, uh,” he held up the mug as he glanced to the look at what was behind the door. Half of Red’s clothes pile was shoved into a mound, squished on one side from the door. “I brought you some… tea.” Edge finished his thought slowly, distracted.   
  
Red stared at him until Edge actually extended his arms to offer him the cup. He took it carefully, staring at the ground once his hand made contact. Edge made sure he had a good grip before letting go. Red pulled his arms back, cradling the mug against his chest. He was looking at it, now, and he gave the cinnamon a little stir before taking a sip.   
  
Edge waited, hopeful. Red opened his mouth slightly after swallowing, but it snapped shut without a sound. With hunched shoulders, he turned away from Edge, picking his way over to his small table and setting the cup down. Edge felt like he was intruding still, so he stepped back out of the room.   
  
Red looked up from fiddling with the cup. His eyelights were wide, and he raised his arm, as though to reach for Edge. It fell quickly. Red turned away from him.   
  
“While you we—um, I found a few new magazines. One’s even about monster trucks. I didn't, uh, I didn't know humans were that aware of our vehicular progress…” Edge felt an unwelcome pressure behind his sockets. It had been far, far too long since he’d sat down and spent time with Red. Even ignoring the time he was gone, it had been months. He could remember Red trying, offering to show him something about ‘muscle cars’, which just sounded ridiculous. Who needed muscles, let alone in a car?  
  
Edge had snubbed him, and cruelly at that. After Red was gone, Edge had spent a lot of nights thinking about that. They had grown apart over the years, mostly due to Edge rejecting his brother at every turn. He was his own monster. He didn’t need Red. He was _too good_ for Red. Then he had dealt it the killing blow when he told Red that he should… should…   
  
He came back to the present to find Red staring. He had the mug in his hands again. As Edge collected himself, he took a little sip.   
  
“Um, did you want to sit down tonight and look at them?” Edge asked, disoriented enough to just spit it out. Red appeared to physically startle at the question. Tea spilled out of the cup and over his fingers.   
  
“Careful!” Edge snapped surging forward to take the cup and check on Red. He only managed two steps before the mug fell to the floor. It shattered, ceramic shards scattering around Red’s feet.  Edge froze.   
  
Red had his hands up over his skull to protect it. His face was tilted down, and he was shaking. Little whimpering noises emanated from him as his body curled inwards.   
  
“Sans, I'm…I’m sorry. I only meant to—I’m sorry,” Edge sputtered, backing away again. “Be—watch out, as you walk…I’ll clean that up—I mean, are you okay?”   
  
Red shook his skull once. With visible effort he lowered his hands and looked up at Edge. His eyelights were nothing but pinpricks as he nodded instead. Rather than move out of the way for Edge to start cleaning, he knelt down and began to collect shards in the hem of his shirt.   
  
“No, I can —” Edge said softly, his arm outstretched. He didn't dare approach Red again. Not unless he was ready, which he clearly wasn't.   
  
All he could do was watch as his brother dealt with yet another mess of his making.   
———  
“Sans?” Stretch called quietly. The house didn't look particularly lived in, but part of him still hoped.   
  
There was no response. Slowly, Stretch walked through the downstairs. It hadn't even been that long, but the whole house felt different. Part of it was the realization of what had happened here over the last several months. It wasn't a place of sentiment anymore, full of lovely memories of him and Blue living a simple life.   
  
Life had gotten much more complicated—Blue had made it more complicated.   
  
Stretch flinched away from the couch. He couldn't even look at the table, where he had noticed Red’s face sporting that angry red bruise.   
  
Upstairs wasn't much better. Sans’s room was empty, but he was full of the understanding of what had happened there. His room was as he left it. Stretch turned his back on them before teleporting back down to the portal, feeling sick. He needed to get out of here, back to Red and Edge’s world.  
  
Worry nagged at him, though. If Sans wasn’t at the house, where could he be? Stretch sighed and crossed his arms. After a moment of thinking he groaned and uncrossed them. With a huff, he teleported away again.   
  
Hotland resolved around him in shades of orange. Stretch shook out his arms and steeled himself before walking over to Alphys’s house. She glared as she opened the door, but, once she recognized him, her eyes widened.   
  
“There you are!” She snapped. “Where have you been? Where’s Sans?” She shoved him out of the doorway to look behind him.   
  
“I've been w-worried sick,” she growled, walking out of her house to look around more.   
  
“Sans—Sans isn't with me,” Papyrus’s voice cracked. Well that answered that.   
  
“Well then where is he?” Alphys demanded, rounding on him. Papyrus took a step back. Would Alphys feel this way if she knew what he had done? Her sense of justice was so strong…  
  
“I don't know,” he admitted, because there was only so much he was going to be able to leave out and keep his composure. It was already almost shot. Alphys’s face crumpled. She turned away from him and kicked the side of her house.  
  
“What happened?” She said, voice even and calm. Papyrus clutched his hands together and told her exactly what she needed to know to keep looking.   
——  
Sans glanced up from where he had his skull resting on his crossed arms. He was trying to nap through his shift, like always, but today there was a problem.   
  
Blue was humming.   
  
“You don't need to stay here,” Sans suggested. “It's not very interesting.” Which was also true. Sentry duty was slightly less interesting than watching paint dry. With paint, at least something changed.   
  
“I’m fine,” Blue replied brightly. “It's exciting to be the first line of defense if something came from this end of the cavern.”  
  
“Right…” Sans turned his skull to the side, watching Blue from the upturned socket. Blue was staring out into the woods, his eyelights bright and clear. If Sans didn't know any better, he would think that he had never faced anything as cruel as he had. He smiled softly. Blue was like Papyrus, always looking at the positives in life.   
  
He had gone through them, though, a fact which still weighed on Sans. He wondered when Stretch would show up looking for his brother. Maybe Red would come instead, to intimidate them. Sans wasn't going to have any of it.   
  
“Blue,” Sans started, but he wasn't sure how to continue. He had a lot he wanted to ask, about what it was like and why it took so long for him to come to them. They were probably going to be painful questions.   
  
“Hm?” Blue looked down at him. He was smiling. Wasn't that enough? Did Sans need to know the gruesome details?   
  
“You should go help Paps with his traps,” Sans smiled back. Blue glanced the other way and flushed very lightly.   
  
“I’m enjoying spending more time with Papyrus, but I…it’s kind of silly…” Blue’s fingers fidgeted in his lap.   
  
“No,” Sans was concerned enough to lift his skull. “It's not silly, whatever it is.”   
  
“Heh,” Blue smiled and looked down. Melancholy moved in, dampening his cheerful demeanor. “I like being around you. You feel safe. It's like being with…you know…before.”   
  
Like being with his brother. Sans let his head sink back down in the face of the wrongness of it all. If Stretch didn't show his face, Sans might just have to go after him. Leaving Blue feeling like this was absolutely inexcusable.   
  
“Well, you can hang around whenever you want,” Sans tried to smile at Blue. It was hard, with anger urging him to grimace. Blue looked up and returned it with a beaming smile of his own.   
  
“Thank you,” he threw his arms around Sans, squeezing him tight.  
  
Sans pat him on the back awkwardly from his spot against the counter. He would do whatever it took to right this wrong.   
——-  
Red listened at the door of his room. All he heard was the television, blaring MTT’s nightly news broadcast. Edge must be done preparing dinner.   
  
He looked over at the drying wet spot on his floor. He had messed up again, ruining things. The tea Edge had made him belonged to the carpet now. Plus he had destroyed one of their mugs. The shattered pieces were on the table in a pile. He'd seen the five larger pieces and thought that maybe he could put it back together, but there were so many smaller pieces that had fallen away. It would be twenty percent glue, if he could even get them to stay together. Why bother?   
  
It wasn’t fixable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smol plug: Fundraising for the sweet, sweet Purr by taking commissions. [Click here for details](https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/637711).

**Author's Note:**

> I’m on Pillowfort now!


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